Serves 4
Ingredients
Goat’s cheese crème
110ml semi-skimmed milk
500g goat’s cheese
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp sherry vinegar
400g cream
Salt and pepper, to taste
Marinated sardines
4 sardines
Coarse salt, to taste
5 sprigs of tarragon
Juice of ½ lemon,
Pepper, salt,
250ml water
3 tbsp white balsamic vinegar
50ml sweet white wine
80ml olive oil
Tomato preserve
3 large tomatoes
6 celery leaves
Pinch of salt
1tsp capers, finely chopped
3 basil leaves, finely chopped
Black pepper, to season
2-3 drops of tabasco
Gelatine (refer to method for qty)
Marinated radishes
8 radishes
Beetroot juice (to cover radishes)
Sherry vinegar, to taste
Salt and pepper, to season
Method
Goat’s cheese crème
Heat the milk and mix in 550g of the goat’s cheese, add the honey, sherry vinegar and leave to cool briefly. When temperature is about 30c, fold in the partly-whipped cream, and season with salt and pepper to taste.
Marinated sardines
To make the marinade, mix together tarragon, lemon juice, pepper, salt, water, white balsamic vinegar, sweet white wine and olive oil. Clean the sardines. To remove head, use scissors to remove stomach and remove bones using your fingers. Open the fillet out onto a board. Sprinkle over some coarse salt and leave to soak up for about 2 minutes. Rinse the fillets and pat dry. Place the sardines in the marinade for around an hour. Remove from marinade just before serving, brush with olive oil and a few grains of fleur de sel.
Tomato preserve
Cut the ripe tomatoes into chunks and mix with some celery, salt, finely chopped capers, finely chopped basil leaves and black pepper. Place a clean, wet muslin cloth on a sieve and put the tomatoes on top. Put in the fridge overnight to allow the juices to seep out. Add a few drops of tabasco to the juice, as well as salt and pepper and add 3 leaves of gelatine per 500ml.
Marinated radishes
Quarter several radishes and place them in beetroot juice, which has been flavoured with sherry vinegar, pepper and salt. Sprinkle with olive oil, pepper and salt just before serving.
Presentation
Cut the marinated sardines into strips of about 1cm. Melt some tomato preserve and pour a layer onto a flat, cold plate and leave to set. When the ‘preserve’ has firmed up a little, place the sardine pieces on top, in a row. Finish off the plate with some finely diced green apple, pieces of smoked eel, the green part of a spring onion filled with the goat’s cheese crème, the marinated radishes. Serve with a sorbet of green apple, tomato juice and cucumber. Serve immediately.
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